Z 9 Wolfgang Zenker

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Z 9 Wolfgang Zenker
Z 9 Wolfgang Zenker at the destroyer quay
Z 9 Wolfgang Zenker at the destroyer quay
Ship data
flag German EmpireGerman Empire (Reichskriegsflagge) German Empire
Ship type destroyer
class Destroyer 1934A
Shipyard Germania shipyard , Kiel
Build number 535
Launch March 27, 1936
Commissioning July 2, 1938
Whereabouts Sunk April 13, 1940
Ship dimensions and crew
length
119.0 m ( Lüa )
116.3 m ( KWL )
width 11.3 m
Draft Max. 4.23 m
displacement 3190  t
 
crew 325 men
Machine system
machine 6 Benson kettles

2 sets of Blohm & Voss steam turbines

Machine
performance
70,000 PS (51,485 kW)
Top
speed
36 kn (67 km / h)
propeller 2
Armament

Z 9 Wolfgang Zenker was a German destroyer in World War II . The ship was one of twelve boats of the destroyer class 1934A . It was named after Lieutenant zur See Wolfgang Zenker (1898–1918), who was killed in defense of the flag of his ship, the battleship SMS König , against mutineers during the Kiel sailors' uprising in November 1918.

history

On the morning of September 3, 1939, the destroyers Z 1 Leberecht Maass and Z 9 Wolfgang Zenker , under the command of Rear Admiral Günther Lütjens , arrived in front of the port of Hel and opened fire on the Polish destroyer Wicher and lying there around 7:00 a.m. the miners Gryf , who returned fire. The Gryf was hit twice. After the intervention of a Polish coastal battery of four 152 mm guns , which claimed four dead and four wounded with one hit on the Leberecht Maass , the Wolfgang Zenker put a smoke curtain and Lütjens broke off the attack.

At the Weser Exercise company , the boat belonged to the combat group of Commodore Friedrich Bonte , which on April 9, 1940 brought 2,000 mountain troops under the command of Lieutenant General Eduard Dietl to occupy the ore port there to Narvik in Norway. After their arrival in Narvik and the landing of the mountain troops, the ten destroyers of the unit were attacked on April 10 and April 13 by British naval units in the so-called Battle of Narvik in the port of Narvik and the surrounding fjords and were all lost. On the British side, five destroyers were initially involved, three days later the battleship HMS Warspite and nine destroyers. On April 13, 1940, the Wolfgang Zenker was taken over by its own crew after the ammunition had been used up and numerous damage was done in Rombaksbotn at 68 ° 25 ′ 0 ″  N , 17 ° 54 ′ 0 ″  E, coordinates: 68 ° 25 ′ 0 ″  N , 17 ° 54 ′ 0 ″  O self-submerged.

commander

The sole commander of the Wolfgang Zenker was Corvette Captain Gottfried Pönitz from July 2, 1938 to April 13, 1940 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Kriegsmarine referred to all vehicles up to and including destroyer size as boats; see: boat / ship